Southern Comfort Feast

Anyone for Southern crunchy fish fry, okra casserole and sweet and savory corn muffins?! Of course! Who would ever say no to that!

I love cod for this dish because it is dense enough to hold up to the light fry without falling apart and stays super moist. With the 1-2-3 dip method, here we go:

1- seasoned flour,.salt and pepper, with a bit of cornstarch.

2- egg dip

3- panko breadcrumbs and cornmeal, half and half.  Season heavily with salt, lots of pepper, paprika, old bay seasoning, garlic salt, oregano. 

Saute medium to large chunks of dipped cod in hot canola oil. Don't move it around. Let it get golden brown and pop into the oven at 325F to keep warm, while you work in batches. The crispy crunchy outcome is to die for!

Okra Casserole- in a stove to oven skillet, with a good amount of olive oil, saute 2 chopped onions until golden, add about a 1/2 cup of chopped tomato or tomato sauce,( not too much), and tons of fresh chopped parsley. Add frozen okra, the small ones are really yummy if you can find them. Mix this together, add salt and pepper. Cover the top with sweet paprika and a bit more oil. Pop this in the oven at 350F for about 25 min or so. A dollop of yogourt when serving is fabulous. 

Any hot sauce, I love Frank's, works so well with this entire dinner.

Great side dish: Honey Cornbread (muffins or loaf.) Out of the over with butter...watch out!
Preheat oven to 400F degrees.
1 cup yellow cornmeal

1 cup all-purpose flour ( NOT whole wheat...doesn't work here)

1 tablespoon baking powder

1/2 cup granulated sugar

1 teaspoon salt

1 cup whole milk

2 large eggs

1/2 stick butter, melted

1/4 cup honey

Add pepper and thyme for a more savory flavour. Our favorite combo! 

In large bowl, mix the cornmeal, flour, baking powder, sugar, and salt. In another bowl, whisk together the whole milk, eggs, butter, and honey. Add the wet to the dry ingredients and stir until just mixed.

Spray muffin tin and fill the cornbread mixture into each cup. Bake for 15 minutes, or until golden. If using a loaf pan, you will need to bake until the toothpick comes out clean, so check after 15 minutes but will probably need more time. 

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Terrific "Tandoori" Marinade

My friend Jackie makes the most delicious BBQ fish on skewers with a yummy "Tandoori" flavour marinade. So, I decided to mimic this on a whole piece of salmon filet. I would actually use this delicious and light marinade with any type of firm fish, or poultry, and for BBQ or baking. 

It is that good!!

Mash 1 clove of garlic and 2 tbsp of ginger to a paste. 
Scrape the paste into a medium bowl and add:

1 tbsp. ground coriander
1 tsp. ground cumin 
2 tsp. paprika
1 tsp. ground fenugreek ( this is a MUST ingredient)
1 tsp. turmeric 
1/4 to 1/2 tsp. cayenne 
1/2 tsp. garam masala
Salt and pepper 

To this spice mixture, add 1.5 c. yogurt and 2 tbsp. of canola or olive oil and whisk until smooth. Will smell heavenly.

In a large zip lock, coat the fish or meat with the marinade and refrigerate for at least 2 hours and up to 4 hours.

Once cooked, the flavours are pronounced but light at the same time. Love the salmon especially. Serve with chopped fresh coriander and spritz of lemon or lime. Basmati rice scented with smashed cardamom pods, raisins and a bay leaf is the perfect accompaniment, and of course sweet peas!!

As a fantastic side, roast and caramelize cauliflower pieces for about 45 min, turning half way. Season with turmeric, ground fenugreek, cumin, salt and pepper. In the meantime,. sauté onions with fresh ginger, a bit of garlic if you like, raisins, garam masala, a few cherry tomatoes and more turmeric. Add the roasted cauliflower to this, and then add fresh spinach until wilted. 

Serve with any Tandoori flavour. Fabulous!

Make Raita, Greek yogourt, shredded Cucumber, lots of fresh mint, a squeeze of lemon and salt. Wowwww!

I could eat this dish every week! 

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Succulent Spices and Secrets

When my son cooks, don't expect or look for a recipe to attempt to re-create the dish. The end result is always a wonderful taste sensation, and you will never have a "step by step" of how he got there (unless you sit and watch!!)

Here are some of the spices he says he used for this fabulous Middle Eastern chicken and rice feast:

Simple Chicken marinade:

Salt, whole and crushed peppercorn, paprika, ground cumin and coriander, fenugreek (ground or whole leaf), harissa and turmeric. 

This marinated chicken is grilled for a delicious BBQ angle to the dish. 

Now for the basmati rice concoction: ( I think...)

In olive oil, saute lots of onion union until golden, add chopped garlic, ginger. Don't forget the bay leaf!

Add spice mixture of cinnamon, cumin, cilantro, turmeric, cardamom, harissa, paprika.

Add lots of pitted dates. WOW, what a great addition, they kind of melt while staying whole.

Add the rice to toast in this scented saute and cover with water. You can add a hit of chicken stock or Bovril. Cover the pan for about 10 min or until rice is cooked.

Garnish with toasted almonds. YUM!

This is one of the best rice combinations I have ever tasted. It is simply mouth watering.

Serve the chicken and rice on one big platter.

Garnish your plate with fresh parsley or cilantro, dollop of yogourt, squeeze of lemon or lime. 

Hope I didn't miss anything...I probably did, but you get the gist of it, right!!

Such a winner to enjoy for a family or group meal!!

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Beloved Quick Bernaise Sauce

If you love Paris, and you love steak, you probably love Bernaise sauce. This luxurious sauce just takes you there. That buttery, tangy, tarragon lemony sensation that is dipping heaven for steak. I dream of it...

So finally, tried a quick homemade version that worked with dried tarragon. Who knew it could be so incredibly delicious, and too easy! Really underestimated this microwave sauce that was just perfect with a BBQ flank steak. Will become a staple with steak and salmon for sure. 

In a small microwavable bowl, melt 1/4 c. butter. Once melted, whisk in:

a finely minced shallot

1 tbsp. white wine vinegar

2 beaten egg yolks

2 tbsp. Cream or yogourt 

1.5 tsp. Lemon juice 

Touch of salt

1 tsp. Dried tarragon 

1 tsp or more finely chopped fresh parsley (dried works too)

Whisk all together. That's it!

Then, in 20 second intervals, 2 or 3 times, microwave and whisk the sauce until a thicker consistency unfolds. It takes a couple of times to thicken even if you think it isn't, it will! 

Serve right away, will be so warm and velvety. Steak, salad and Bernaise, dreamy, tellement délicieux! 

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PLEEEZZZE! Peanut Butter Chocolate Pie

Ridiclulous times call for ridiculous desserts. This is where a decadent peanut butter chocolate pie comes in. A few quick steps, a long chill and a little sliver at a time. This pie can feed a troop...VOILA!

Make a regular graham cracker crust in a pie dish. Add some cocoa powder to the mix for that extra dash of choco fix. Bake for about 15 min or so, until set.

In a medium bowl, with an electric mixer, combine until whippy:
1 cup of peanut butter
1/3 c. of sweetened condensed milk
1/2 c. Greek yogourt

Once the crust is ready, smooth the peanut butter mixture into the pie and chill for about 15 min.

In the meantime, make the top layer of chocolate creaminess:
For the microwave, in a medium size bowl, combine 1.5 c. of choco chips, I like semi- sweet dark, and 2 tbsp of heavy cream. In 30 second intervals, 2 or 3, melt the chocolate until glossy and smooth. Let cool for a bit.

Now, whip 1/2 c. of heavy cream until soft peaks form. Fold the cooled chocolate mixture into this, and watch a lovely, light-ish and creamy mixture emerge. This now is the top layer to the pie.

Once the chocolate layer is placed onto the pie, into the fridge it goes for a few hours to chill and set. Take it out of the fridge about 30 min before serving.

Of all my un-refined plebeian baking over the years, this might be the richest concoction yet. So, one bite at a time...so, so yummy. 

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Chinese Orange Chicken with Crispy Noodles

I'm not really sure how this Chinese inspired dinner came together. I can only say that under these "C" confinement times, we were craving the flavours and crispiness of some of our favorite Chinese  dishes, Orange beef and Crispy noodles with vegg.

Since we had chicken thighs, not beef, my son began the quest in our fridge and cupboard for the scents and spices for a baked Orange chicken concoction. Some of the key ingredients for the perfumed basting liquid are: 1/2 cup to a cup of olive oil, (amount depending on how much sauce you are making) star anise, bay leaf, orange juice and strips of zest, whole dried chili pepper, crushed black peppercorn, garlic, ginger, brown sugar...all of this came together in a pan and reduced for a saucy chicken bake at 325F for about 1.5 hours. I think this could also be done on the stove top in a big pan, covered for part of the cooking.

My daughter loves, but loves crispy noodles. We all do. We have never prepared them this way, but it really worked out! Topped with any vegg you think would go well, we had fresh broccolini and a can of water chestnuts. We blanched the greens before incorporating them into the sauce below. I would consider using the frozen Asian vegg packs too which I suppose you could also blanch or microwave the get the freeze out.

Pre-heat the oven at 300F if you are making a lot so they keep warm while you make the oodles of crispy noodles in batches. 

We boiled dried "chow mien" or ramen noodles for a few minutes and then drained.

To crisp them up, you need quite a bit of canola oil and a hit of sesame oil in a large frying pan or wok and get it truly hot. Place a pancake kind of layer of noodles in the pan (spread them out), and once golden, flip them. Keep doing this until all are done.

In the meantime, make a sauce that you will cook in a pan, saute the vegg in, and eventually pour over the noodles. We used lots of Oyster sauce as the main base, soy sauce, sesame oil, pasty garlic that we mircroplaned. Minced ginger or lemongrass would also work well. Next time, we would consider thickening this with a bit of a cornstarch slurry when cooking.

Place your noodles on a platter and pour the saucy vegg on top. Garnish with fresh scallions and toasted sesame seed.

This entire feast was such a winner, we can't wait to make it again!

        

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BA's Shockingly Fabulous Focaccia Bread

I admit, I have never made any recipe with "yeast" due to sheer fear. This recipe crossed our eyes from Bon Appetit with one of our fave foodies, Samin Nosrat, and just sounded too good to be true. Should we dare? Beloved focaccia... so we hovered over my daughter while she attacked the seemingly daunting task. To our great delight, it was beyond simple to make and the end result was even better than we could have imagined. Better even than our new favorite down the street Italian cafe's focaccia bread . Now that's hard to beat! And it beat it indeed.

Here it goes...and it's an overnight process or at least 8 hours of resting:
In a large bowl, whisk together:
5 cups of all purpose white flour
5 tsp. salt, Diamond Crystal worked great. (can't scrimp on the salt, key flavour)

In 2.5 cups of lukewarm tap water, add 2- 1/4 tsp. active dry yeast and 2 tsp. honey. Mix this up and it turns cloudy. Leave it sit for about 5 minutes and some fermenting bubbles should form. If this doesn't happen, the yeast is probably not good. Add the yeasty water to the flour and mix with a spatula and/or your hands until a nice shaggy dough forms. (no dry streaks)

In another large bowl (as the dough will expand to double its girth) pour 4 tbsp. (or more, more is good) of extra virgin olive oil. It does matter that the oil you use is of great quality. It's incredible how much the oil perfumes the final product. Add the flour into this bowl and collect the dough with your hands, rolling it around in the oil while making a nice ball. Cover with saran and chill for at least 8 hours or overnight.

An alternate choice is to set the dough aside at room temperature to rise for 3-4 hours. We haven't tried this method yet, but we will!

After an overnight rise, the dough looks amazing, "alive", bubbly. Now it's time to stretch out the dough onto a large cookie sheet sized pan, or two for a more thin crusty bread. We loved the thick, light airy bread that is baked in 1 pan and we were blown away by the moistness once cooked. (We tried the 2 pan method to make a pizza thin bread, what a hit!)

Let the dough rest more once in the pan, at least an hour or so, it will still rise more. We left it a really long time before baking. Then, with all your fingers, strongly poke around the top of the dough, making small pools. On goes lots of olive oil, don't be shy.

Then comes the SECRET we only learned from Samin on the BA YouTube spot. Make a small glass of brine, 1/3 cup water and 1.5 tsp. salt, and pour straight onto the dough. It collects in the finger-made pools and then top with even more oil. WOW! Just doing it makes you feel like this bread will be special.

We topped our bread with lots of flaky sea salt and lots of dried rosemary.

In a 450F oven, the bread bakes for about 20-30 min. You want the underneath and crust to be nice and golden brown.

We were surprised at how fabulously this bread turned out. We keep making it!!

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THE BEST Oatmeal Muffins

My daughter wanted to make these muffins and went onto the blog only to ask, "where's that recipe Mom"? We can't believe it isn't on the blog, we've only made this recipe about 1000 times! It is simple, the moistest, best tasting oatmeal thing.

Pre-heat oven to 375 degrees F.

Combine 1 cup of large flake oatmeal with 1 cup of boiling water and let it sit. This is the key to this recipe.

In a medium bowl, cream with a mixer:
1/2 cup brown sugar
1/2 c. softened butter (1 stick)
then, add 2 eggs and a tsp. of vanilla and combine

To this mixture, add through a sieve:
1 cup flour

1 tsp baking soda (thanks Jackie!)
With a wooden spoon, stir in the moistened oatmeal.

Add your choice of any dried fruit, any type of chocolate chips, coconut, nuts etc. Beef it up!

Bake for 20 min or so. They are so bloody good!

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Fantastic "Reuben" Frauds

Looking in the fridge for lunch in these crazy "C" word times. Seeing sauerkraut and cold cuts...thinking rich Reuben sandwiches! Swapped corned beef for whatever meats we had, (turkey, capicolli) havarti cheese for swiss, milti-grain bread for rye, and made homemade Russian dressing. 

1.5 cups mayo

3 tbsp ketchup

2 tbsp horsradish

2 tsp. Worcestershire sauce

Some sugar and paprika

Place bread, buttered side down in large pan to grill. Slather the dressing on the bread and top with cheese, meat and loads of sauerkraut. More dressing and the other buttered slice. Then flip! 

Very rich sandwiches, so mouthwatering, especially with some of your favorite chips! Once or twice a year kinda thing...but oh so damn good!! 

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